Been a long, LONG time since i suggested something, but i know it\'s a good one.

Sort of like a minigame, and like the title describes, there are exploration objects and points throughout the world that will grant you experiance, or a skill, or a item or something as a reward for finding it. The first one to find such a object gets the best prize, the second person the second best, and so on until a certain amount of people find that thing, it destroys itself, and respawns itself somewhere else in the world randomly. Thus, the hunt begins again. There would be several types of things to find:

Items - A sword, a suit of armor, scrolls, things like that. These give the lowest reward - itself. I know, slightly useless, but it is a better-then-normal item. If it\'s a full plate mail suit it will be magically enchanted or enhanced with a special material, increasing the armor and worth of the object.

Places - Ancient stones, instanced secret areas in dungeons, and various other things make up places. They usually give away a small collection of normal items (like a pile of gold or a full/partial collection of armor (like: metal helmet, chainmail, gauntlets - that would be a partial armor set) or a variety of normal weaponery) and once found close to the player that found them. Once their stock runs out of whatever they held, they are dealt with as usual.

Friendlies - When you approach them they will declare their neutral stance, and give you a riddle or a small thing to do - relatively simple - and will reward you with a item of your choice that they hold. Generally, the character wont stay in one spot for long - they wander around quite a bit - and once aided will disappear from the players sight for a time (he\'s still there but has become invisible) They dont give quests, rather, puzzels and riddles.

Hostiles - Defeat (read: kill) them and loot their bodies, or bloody their face and \"encourage\" (read: threaten) them to give you their stuff without a fatality. However, there are a sub-set of hostiles called \"monsters\" which cannot be \"reasoned\" with the way human/humanoid hostiles can. monsters are usually tougher and carry a bigger reward for the player if the player can kill them.

(1) Portals - Simply a magical portal that will allow you one free teleport to a location of your choice - one way - even if you haven\'t been there. There\'s even a \"surprise me\" choice that will throw you at the computer\'s mercy in deciding just where you should go! Once used enough times they\'ll collapse in a brilliant flash of light, along with a vertical column of energy (reaching quite high) and re-open somewhere else. Very rare, and very useful; it can be a reward for finding a place or defeating a hostile/helping a friendly.

(2) Portals - Possibly a magical gateway that will allow travel between planes of existance. Step through, and you may become ethreal (out-of-sync with this universe\'s \"rules\"; partially or fully invisible; you\'re a ghost) or you may distort your vision for a long time occasionally seeing things in a different way, or even being teleported to entirely unique areas. (IE: Above ground) Fortunetly they\'re usually two-way, so you can step back through the portal if you dont like what/where the portal put you...
Or it could simply be a (1) Portal.

-=-=-
The list goes on, but it\'s late and i\'m tired.

Summary:
The player can wander around, find useful items and unique locations with stockpiles of equipment, cash, and other interesting things; allowing the player to get enjoyment from the game by being a treasure hunter and sneak (\"Hey, you... Yeah, you. You want to know where this... uh... portal, is... It\'ll cost you a bit of cash though, but i ensure to you, it\'s well worth it.\"   ) and not by being a mass murderer.

It would be interesting, from time to time, that a event would occur where the ceiling of the giant cave would shift, and send small stones falling to the ground. This could be a substitute for rain.

However, the other purpose of this is for random things like utility-ores(iron, coal, copper...), precious ores (silver, gold, platinum...), jems (diamonds, rubies, emeralds...), and possibly small and VERY small items (rings, amulets, peircings...) could all drop durring this \"rain of stone.\"

It would obviously damage players, perhaps severely damage them, if any object hit them including the small stones. But for the most part these stones remain very small pebbles and dirt chunks with no more impact then a rain drop or a small hail stone. However, when a large portion of the ceiling collapses and lands on the ground, it could have any proportion of items and ores within it: so it could be mined and have a claim staked to it by a (possible group of) player(s).

These big ones would obviously kill you instantly, but a large shadow and a distinct \"big-a** stone falling\" sound would warn of any impending danger LONG before it crushed your body. As well, it\'s very hard to miss a large object hurtling directly down upon you. As well, if castle-like seiges are ever implemented it could give another possiblility of breaking down a wall... just wait until a large stone falls on it; or make one fall on it.

A thought passed through my mind today -- Why do necromancers summon generic skeletons? Generic zombies? Why dont they mix-n-match parts?

Well, why can\'t they mix-and-match parts?

Obviously, necromancy would fall under the \"dark way\" of magic. My idea is as follows:

Bones, Souls, and Flesh - The parts of a skeleton and zombie
Bones in games are often classified as they are - bones. Even if they come from different creatures, they\'re still called bones. Sometimes big bones/normal bones but rarely with the creature\'s name included in the title of the item. This is what the idea requires: Two classifications (Large and Normal) and then the names from which creatures the bones came.

Flesh is handled in much the same way as bones, but simply have the name attached to it. However, unlike bones, Flesh can carry attributes - Fire resistance, enhanced-regeneration, and other various things.

Souls are a third, but not really a necessary part of a skeleton or zombie. However, what souls do is give the creature is drive and a personal will of it\'s own. Basically, instead of being a slave to you (as it often is) it will now \"think\" before it acts and will be far more deadly in combat. It will find a weakness and exploit it, for example. It will run away if it\'s outnumbered or out-powered, and charge blindly if it\'s in a large group or has a good master/equipment. As a bonus to putting a soul into a zombie/skeleton, their magical energy intake is reduced to 1/100th of it\'s original. More on that later.

Building the beast - Assembling your body guards
You go out hunting and kill several foes, collecting their bones, skinning them, cutting their flesh, and taking it with you. Gruesome though it may sound, it\'s necessary for you to create a powerful customized body guard. (The examples here-in may not accurately reflect the gameplay feel)

You decide to raise a zombie with a soul, and you Cast the proper spell. Once the spell is complete you select from a list of available ingredents to which that zombie will aquire. When you enter into the undead creation screen it will have your inventory to one side, and a series of sliders with a name of the slider and a short description popping up if you leave your mouse over them. (The screen may possibly have a view window of the finished undead monster you will create)

1. Normal Bones: 50 - 1000
2. Large Bones: 1 - 500
3. Flesh: Max allowable flesh (# based on count of Large/Normal bone count. is *not* a decimal)
*Type1 0 - 200
...
*Type10 0 - 200
4. Behaviour: Available Behaviour Points 30
*Self Repair 0 - 10
*Item Scavenging 0 - 10
*Item Care 0 - 10
*Self-preservation 0 - 10
*Item use 0 - 10
5. Soul: Name of the Soul
6. Equipment: Small paper-doll, and very small inventory
7. SAVE Conig -- LOAD Config -- Summon: #
8. Cancle -- Create -- Make Default
9. Minimum Normal Bones 50 -- Minimum Large Bones 1

Explanation:
1. How many Normal Bones you wish to place into the creature. These account for 40% of the total HP of the undead.

2. How many Large Bones you with to place into the creature. These account for 20% of the total HP of the undead.

3. What types of flesh you will use. This will account for 40% of the total HP of the undead creature. Some flesh types are worth more then others (in HP value and Flesh count) and some have special properties which are imparted onto the zombie; like resistance to heat/cold/etc. [The max amount of flesh you can put on a skeleton of a undead is based on how many bones there are. larger bones can support more flesh.]

4. How the skeleton/Zombie will behave.
*Self Repair dictates how often a zombie/skeleton will ransack a corpse or take bones/flesh from the ground to repair it\'s own broken bones and rotting tissues. Set to 10, they\'ll devour bodies even if they\'re being attacked, and 0 will mean they never regenerate themselves.

*Item Scavenging dictates how often a skeleton/zombie will steal items from a corpse or take items laying on the ground. This behaviour runs parallel to the Item Care behaviour. The higher this is set from 0, the more the zombie/skeleton will take higher-value items from the pile of goodies. Large amounts of Cash and rare/unique items are priority one when this is set at 10. Set to 0, the undead will rarely if never pickup anything.

*Item Care dictates how often the zombie/skeleton will try to look after their equipment that they find and use. This behaviour runs parallel to the Item Scavenging behaviour. The higher this is set from 0, the more the zombie/skeleton will repair it\'s items. If it\'s set to 0, they\'ll never repair their items given to them but if at 1, they\'ll keep them just above breaking.

*Self-Preservation is how often the zombie will decide to save it\'s own life if it finds itself out-numbered or out-gunned. (so to speak) Set to 0 and they will fight to the death - Set to 0 and they will run away from people with clubs and fire.

*Item Use tells the zombie when to use items like potions/scrolls/magic books (yes, zombies/skeletons can use magic They need a spellcaster soul to do so, though.) and how effective it is at using equipment given to him. Higher is always better

5. The Soul gives extra attributes to the undead creature. For example, a soul of a spell caster can be used to create a spell-casting undead. However, there are souls that are cursed which will break-away from your control and attack you (often with devistating powers) As well, some souls allow you to evade and reduce some aspects of undead creation - like (9) the minimum bone count - and some will allow you to create different undeads like ghouls and ghosts!

6. Equipment is what the undead will weild and carry with him. Undeads can wear everything a player can with some exceptions; NO \"holy\" items, no items that have the effect of dispell undead, and especially no items that would crush them. The more bones and muscle you put on the undead the more the creature will be able to carry. The undead will also be able to use various magical items as long as they have a soul to allow them to do it.

7. SAVE/LOAD does just that; saves and loads configurations of zombies/skeletons for later use. They save to your hard-drive as .txt files, and are checked upon logon by the server for errors/invalid properties; but only once. Summon # is the # of undead you wish to summon from this amount it\'s default is 1, though it can be changed to a max of \"Everything I Have\"

8. Cancle is to cancle undead creation, Create is to make the undead as it\'s setup on the screen, and Set as Default is to set this as a template for every zombie you\'ll make, never opening the creation screen automatically (you\'ll have to open the undead creation screen by manually pressing a key/on screen button)

9. The minimum amounts of bones required for you to create one undead creature.

====
Remember, you can modify ONLY the undead\'s equipment after creation, so make sure their behaviours and souls are at what you want before you create a army of them! You can un-summon them at your whim and get back the soul and some of the bones/flesh you originally used to create the undead creature.

As well, the amount and strength of undead you can hold under your grasp is based on your dark way magical ability. A lower-skilled dark-way mage will only be able to summon one or two skeletons, while the grand master of the dark way would be able to summon a army of 500 or so of the most powerful undead. 8o Putting easy-to-control souls into the undead allow you to control more undead with less of a magical energy drain on you, however, novice players will probably not be able to control a poweful undead soul.


I belive this system would provide the most fun for players, allowing them other - possibly unintentional - ways to play the game. One interesting way would be to see who\'s skeleton was best constructed and have them duke it out in a combat pit, with the winner taking the other\'s bones, flesh, and soul.
====

[-=ALL EDITS/ADDITIONS ARE BELOW HERE=-]
Seru spawned in my mind the idea for additional creation parameters for dealing with how the undead would look and act like. Thus, I have spawned in my mind 3 species of createable undead. They are:
Humanoid:
The classic skeleton/zombie look. Humanoid\'s require 50 Normal bones, and 1 large bone to be created. They\'re the bread and butter undead species. They have 8 slots open for flesh (out of 10) and can cast and use equipment easilly. (well, as easilly as a undead could)

Flying:
Think of a bird, then strip it down to it\'s skeleton or rot away it\'s flesh alittle bit to get a Flying undead. They gain a bonus to magical defence and attack and speed; But they\'re VERY easy to take out with pysical attacks. Flyers require 30 Normal bones to be created, but have a severe limit as to how many bones you can place onto the undead flyer (So they will never have large amounts of health) They also only have 6 slots open for flesh (out of 10)

Beast:
Beast undead are bulky, strong, and perfect for fighting (so they have LOTS of HP and can carry better equipment) but arn\'t very good at resisting and using magic and are moderately slower then the other undeads. They require 70 Normal bones and 2 Large bones to be created, and have a higher-then-normal maximum for bones. They have all 10 flesh slots open for use.

These are for the undead types you create. you can ressurect just any normal corpse, but this is the classic and borring way. As well, you can\'t put a soul into them. Bones are bones. Bones that come from a bird are treated no differently then bones comming from a humanoid.

Advanced Soul/Behaviour Info
Without a soul placed into a created undead, you can\'t modify it\'s behaviour; However, when you become proficient you may be able to set their behaviour without a soul. When you create a undead without a soul you use your own soul in the undead you create. THUS, they will follow every command to the note - they won\'t stop attacking until you tell them to retreat.

However, with a soul you can modify the created undead\'s behaviours as stated above. Souls are accessable through Soul Spheres. Orbs containing a soul which can be traded from player to player and bought/sold at various magical stores. They come in \"levels\" ranging from 0 to 10 and different types ranging from a Fighter class, to a smith, shopkeeper, and even a specialist/generalist mage.

Soul Spheres must be held - either in the players hand or in the player\'s inventory - by the caster in order to control their undead. Without a soul sphere the undead will either become as they were - dead flesh and bones - or if their soul sphere\'s level is high enough, become hostile and uncontrolable. Soul Spheres are like batteries, holding souls in one place for easy use. When you create the undead, you place the battery in the undead and \"charge up\" the creature. This drains a certain # of charges from the sphere. They can then be refilled over time and when something nearby dies, though higher level soul spheres are harder to recharge or cannot be recharged at all.

Soul spheres come in basic types:
Generalist Soul Spheres (GSS\'s) - Far more common then any other soul sphere, these allow you only to modify behavioural statistics, but they allow you to control more undead then any other soul sphere. (Excluding special soul spheres)

Warrior Specialist Soul Spheres (WSSS\'s or WSS\'s) - the basic warrior soul, with sub-types ranging from archers to berzerkers. WSS\'s have the best abilities to use armor/weapons equiped and found but have little ability in using magic. They also have a bonus to health but a penalty to speed.

Mage Soul Spheres (MSS\'s) - basic mages, in two classes being either generalists or specialists. Specialist Mage Soul Spheres will often be colored apropriately to their way of magic, with level 10 being the most intense of coloration. MSS\'s are able to use magic quite well, but lack proper skills in fighting with weapons and wearing heavilly protective armors. A bonus to speed, but a penalty to health.

Rare/Unique Soul Spheres (R/USS\'s) - Special soul spheres which can often only control small amounts of undead, but often bestow multiple abilities and bonuses to those undead under it\'s grasp and special abilities to certain created undead types, used flesh, and to the sphere itself.

The max charge of a soul sphere is a number inbetween ()\'s. Afew example soul spheres would be:
Berzerker Level 3 Soul Sphere (35) - Warrior class soul sphere of the third level. Better weapon weilding abilities then that of any other soul spheres, berzerking undead never retreat from battle.

Berzerker Level 3 Soul Sphere (7) - Warrior class soul sphere of the third level. Better weapon weilding abilities then that of any other soul spheres, berzerking undead never retreat from battle.

Red Way Mage Level 10 Soul Sphere (3) - Red way mages are controled though this sphere. They can cast the most devistating red-way magical spells and gives a bonus to those with fresh flesh, but incur severe damage when attacked with the opposing way of magic.

(Unique) Lich Soul Sphere (1) - A master of all magics, the lich is immune to every spell known, but is so weakened that a single slash of a sword can destroy it.

Level 1 Soul Sphere (100) - A basic Soul Sphere; Modify behaviour only.


Soul Spheres can be combined into one soul sphere (merging their charges with some loss, always keeping 1 charge though) to lessen the inventory-clutter and level-up weaker soul spheres when combined, but combination of higher-level spheres takes lots of money and can only be preformed by NPCs. Lower-level combinations can be performed by players, though.

General Info
- When you logout, you undead are placed into \"stasis\", dissapearing from view and their status held in place where upon you log back on they are re-summoned where they were with all their HP and equipment; Your prized Level 10 Lich and Level 10 berzerker army of 5 million bajillion will not dissapear so easilly. (heh. not really that many though)
- All undead are created without a soul and with minimal material use as Default. Creating custom undead are more akin to the advanced users; you\'ll have to access the screen to be able to alter the undead you wish to create.
- You have to follow a simple step-by-step plan when creating undead. You cannot select a soul and then say you want to change the flesh and bone count. Though it may apear complex here, it will be simple in game.

We all know that attacking with melee and ranged weapons can be either as unique and interesting as Soul Calibur 2, or as repetitive and borring as poking a dead rat with a stick. Attack types - Defensive, Berzerk, Cautious - can all increase the \"fun\" level of fighting, but not by much. As well, it\'s somewhat over-done. So, i hope to impress upon you a different fighting system worthy of PS. First, i\'ll outline my ideas for attacking with melee weapons and sheilds:

(Please note that LMB (Left mouse button) and RMB (Right mouse button) ARE interchangable, incase someone wants to weild their sword in their LEFT hand, instead of their right. [As well, you dont have to exagerate movements greatly. Mouse sensitivity can be increased to get necessary movement to start slashing. 5-10mm would be enough to start slashing with the default sensitivity.])

The main way to control your melee weapon is with your mouse movements and clicking. To slash, you click your LMB (Left Mouse Button) and move your mouse in a direction. A upward slash would be a click and upward mouse movement. A right-handed slash would be a click and mouse movement from top left to bottom right. And so on. To stab right click. Movement can also dictate where the stab is comming from (downward stabs are the best. trust me, i know. ) No movement on a slash will turn in into a stab; no movement on a right-click stab will still stab, except go strait (a thrust)

You can also dictate how the attack will go down with your foot movements - Moving left will give more power to a slash headed to the left, moving right will make a slash headed right more powerful. Moving forward will produce a powerful thrust or stab. Moving backwards will add a larger arch to your swing and pull it back faster.

Of course, that\'s for bladed weapons... If you\'re using a mace a downward slash becomes a devastating bludgeoning blow. Pikes could peirce bodies impaling several people at once. Pole arms would have devastating wide-archs breathing destruction everywhere they touch save the enemy close to them, etc etc.

\"But what of sheilds?\" I hear you say. No problem. Your sheild takes over your right mouse button. Right clicking will bring the shield up, ready to deflect a blow or stop a missile weapon. The bigger the sheild the more of a chance the attack will hit the sheild and not you! Dont worry though - you can still thrust and stab; just move forward when you do. Moving the mouse in a direction while the shield is up will move the sheild around to that part of your body. This way you can cover your right side without looking right.

However, you\'re limited on how far you can move the sheild - Moving the sheild all the way to the left while weilding it in your right hand will constrict your left arm - you can\'t swing you\'re sword very well. switching your weapon with your sheild will happen if you press crouch and the RMB (Right Mouse Button) quickly together. Switching takes awhile though, so you\'ll be vulnerable as your weapon and sheild switches hands.

You can bash with your sheild by pressing the RMB and then the LMB with directional input from the mouse and movement, as well. Moving forward will bash forwards - swinging the mouse to the right will arch a bash going right. Wielding TWO sheilds gives you a LARGE defensive bonus, simply because you have two sheilds. Bashing with two sheilds is simple; you press the sheild you want to bash with represented by your 2 mouse buttons (remember Left hand tied to LMB and Right hand tied to RMB) and then you press the other mouse button to initate the bash. Foot movement and mouse movement again dictate what the bash does.

Missile weapons - there are two common types - thrown missiles and shot missiles.

Throwing missiles are easy - Move your mouse and press your LMB to dictate the arc, and while you hold down the LMB the missile will be thrown farther/shorter because a slider power bar will apear on the screen with a indicator moving up and down for as long as you hold the LMB. The top of the bar is power, and the bottom of the bar is accuracy.

If you want to chuck that rock REALLY hard... wait until the indicator is on the upper half of the bar. If you want that shot to land exactly where you want it to at the end of the arc, wait until the indicator is on the lower half. Of course, the middle is the base accuracy/power of the missile and you have to hold it for at least 2 seconds to get maximum distance. Clicking with the RMB will make you bash/stab with the missile that\'s in your hand.

Shooting the missile - There are always different ways of shooting projectiles - Bows, Crossbows, Slings, Blowguns, and many others. Each one is different, though, but they all require ammo.

Crossbows are the simplest to shoot and reload. It requires 2 hands, and fires bolts or darts. To shoot, just press the LMB. Once shot, you can press and hold the LMB to tension the string. A meter will pop up, and the longer you hold the LMB, the tighter the string will get - but be warned - if you hold the LMB down for too long you\'ll over-tension the string and possibly break it! Low tension means low power, so be sure to tighten it properly - unless you want to not tension the string properly. Pressing the RMB gives a bash - again - the basic movement of feet and mouse gives power and direction.

Slings and Blowguns are just like a throwing projectile. A power/accuracy bar pops up when you hold the LMB down. Holding down the LMB for too long will make you tired, though, and you\'ll eventually lose power and accuracy until it stays dead-middle for 3 seconds and then stops. If you let go of the LMB here, you wont fire and you\'ll have to hold it down to try to shoot again. These weapons are also commonly one-handed, so you can carry a sheild/other weapon in the free hand.

Shooting with a bow has all the usual elements, but is trickier - two handed and able to bash (though not that well if it\'s wooden) but it, too, has something different. A stress meter. The longer you hold the arrow in place, the more stressed you become. Accuracy and power is based on how little stress you have. When you first press the LMB the bar will start at 1/3 the total amount of stess - this is you pulling the arrow into place. However, after that initial amount of stress, the meter goes down but then rises at a speed dependant on your stats. The higher the meter goes the less power, distance, and accuracy you\'ll get - so be sure to fire the arrow before your stress becomes too much.

Countering attacks from enemies is a vital part of survival. A upwards diagonal slash could be countered with a horizontal slash or vertical choping motion. Pole arms would only deal damage around their slicing implement - weapons could very well break the pole between the blade and the user, leaving the weapon useless (unless the connection was magical between the handle and the blade.) As well, you can\'t ignore weapon dynamics - pikes will stop and probably kill the short sword user where as crossbows may defeat the pikeman\'s armor. crossbows would take VERY long to reload, so if the crossbower misses, he\'s mostly screwed against anything. maces would be defeated by sheilds, and swords would be countered by armors that deflect slicing blows. Etc etc...

Different ways of shooting and fighting - Just a little side-track from the main idea, you would be able to hold multiple projectiles in a shooter or in your hand and throw/shoot them, spraying them over a area like a shotgun. You could put multiple bolts onto a crossbow, but it might become highly inaccurate. You could also weild two small swords/daggers in one hand, for double the slashing and stabbing power, but they might slip around. As well, small things like daggers and arrows could be thrown even without a projectile weapon, but they might not be as powerful as when they\'re in their proper shooter. For instance you could substitute crossbow bolts for daggers, but they probably wont do very well as a projectile. (Im not saying they wouldn\'t work, im just saying they may not work as well as the proper ammo.)

----
All in all, i think this Soul Calibur 2-like attack and defense combat system would breathe total and rejuvinating air back into the severly deflated balloon that is \"Attack type/method/tactics - hack and slash.\" Of course, this could only really work well with a Real Time combat engine, but... i think it would work in turn based, too. Not sure, but i think so (As long as each player could respond to moves durring the other\'s turn. I just dont see turn based combat being fun in a MMORPG... ?( )

Well, go on. Post away.

[Super long so be sure you have time to read atleast some of it! Nor is this first paragraph a ticket for you to not read the entire idea. I will get very angry if I have to repeat myself.]

I\'ve always despised the fact that RPGs have had little to do with character vs enviroment in the gameplay.

I mean, when it\'s foggy yeah, it\'ll block my view; but my iron... my iron armor wont rust. I can sit in the fog and kill as many enemies as I want to, and spend days IRL (in real life) sitting there whacking enemies and my equipment just wont be effected by the weather. It makes me (ironically) absolutely annoyed that my iron armor doesn\'t rust or corrode away.

So, instead of just fighting monsters, players will have to fight their enviroment to some degree. The majority of it is simple, and very little of it\'s really complex. Anyways, on with the filling!

Basic Stuff - Often over-looked by designers
Infravision - Always a favourite of players to have in dark dungeons, it allows players to see the infrared spectrum of light; in plain english you see heat emitted from bodies of enemies and friends.

Now, Infravision REALLY helps in the dungeons, because the walls are cold and the majority of the creatures are warm blooded. However, in one too many RPGs i\'ve been able to see invisible and cold blooded enemies with infravision, when i really shouldn\'t have. Cold blooded enemies dont have any or much body heat of their own; thus they can\'t be seen with infravision very well.

Infravision also doesn\'t improve anything with seeing the landscape. If you\'re on tundra, the land should be pitch black to dark-dark purple. Same with deserts; the landscape isn\'t a boiling white or red. On that topic, infravision continues to funtion flawlessly in enviroments like deserts. A desert is endlessly warm, and any warm-blooded creature would be near invisible, as well as cold blooded creatures because they\'d be warm or very hot! However, cold climates and underwater would increase the power of infravision greatly, as the enemies are on a semi-solid background color... Though fog and being underwater could hamper infravision some (because of the cold air/water/vapour between you and the enemy)

Rusting - RPGs have always been semi-there for rusting and equipment failure, but not fully. If you walked through a water fall your equipment would stay just as sparkling and powerful. However, short-term water contact wouldn\'t really do much... it\'s the long-term on/off water contact that causes rust to form. If a weapon rusts, it loses strength and it\'s edge, though it CAN be a good way to poison something if a peice breaks off inside the body. The only way to stop rust is to stop it before it starts. Coating weapons in metals that resist or dont rust (steel for the former, aluminum and gold for the latter) will preserve the weapon and protect it from rust. Rusted weapons are damaged easilly because the majority of the oxidized iron/other metal is flaked material, as well because of the rusting their damage is reduced to nearly nothing, because it\'d break against even leather armor.
There\'d be different levels of rust:
Very Reflective (The best quality, only possible with waxing)
Reflective (Best possible without adding anything \"Special\")
Shiney (It still reflects light)
Blotched (You can\'t see yourself)
Covered (Severe, but a whipe will clear it and put it to Reflective)
Flaking (Still recoverable, but it\'ll cost you for replacement [metal name here])
Powder (Un-recoverable)

These could also be used to calculate the ability to reflect some attacks on armor and weapons... Very reflective to Shiney would be used, though; Anything below those and the item wouldn\'t reflect didly squat. Losing a weapon to rust is bad, but rusted armor is even worse; it\'s slow and difficult to put on, and once on it isn\'t as mobile or strong. A real problem if you let it develop, BUT it IS easy to stop and repair. (Just be sure you catch it in time.) Corrosion-like attacks can be put under rusting for effects. Also know that rust often leads to more rust, so it will soon gather strength in destroying your equipment if you dont smack it down.

Complex or difficult to implement - Fighting the terrain and it\'s effects.
Snow - Crunch, crunch, through the snow you go. But this is more then emiting a sound when you move. There would certainly have to be different depts of snow, and with depths, there will be penalties to speed, but also bonuses for steath; for the aptly prepared. A suit or dress of white will make you blend in in a snow storm, as well, some specialized shoes and light armor will increase your speed on this tricky terrain. As well, the cold takes it\'s toll on the unprepared. It will take more time to do difficult or exausting tasks, like jumping and putting on and running in heavy armor. However, that is not to say that heavy armor is not at a disadvantage!

Metal armor WILL slow you down and make you colder, however, if the armor is PADDED and/or if you are wearing some extra clothes you will be able to stay warm; and what does warm, metal do? It melts snow. So, if you can have warm or even hot metal armor in a snow storm, you will be able to move at a faster walking speed then you normally could. Some potions will freeze, too.

Deserts - Metal armor isn\'t exactly a good idea here, either, and not wearing any protection will make you boil and become ill due to too much sun exposure. Light, and reflective clothing will help deflect heat and stop you from overheating yourself. Again, if you can color youself or your equipment to the color of the desert you will gain a stealth advantage. You wont suffer much of a speed penalty when walking through the desert, but the stress of intense actions will cause you to lose HP. In this stressed state, casting spells is also difficult. Water and food are also difficult to find for those who dont know where to look for it. The roving sands can also swallow equipment and dungeon entrances... or reveal them. Potions can evaporate and become concentrated if they\'re not seal properly, as well.

Forests - Lots of cover. However, forests are easy to walk through, and shouldn\'t be that difficult to move through. Very heavy armor might be another story when you reach a slope, however. (tumbling tin men being slaughtered by fast-moving archers comes to mind :rolleyes: ) You can also find lots of food and water, and can actually increase the power of some magical spells. There are lots of creatures, but they arn\'t that diverse.

Jungles - More covers then forests, and thus this causes troubles in movement. There are tons of creatures, very diverse in their abilities. There are also several natural traps in a jungle like quicksand. However, some things like quicksand can be escaped if you know what to do (quicksand is nothing more then sand particles suspended in water. Yes, you can SWIM in quicksand and you dont get sucked down.) There\'s mud, which if you stand in for too long you\'ll sink down abit and take awhile to get moving in a direction. Vines provide a easy way to get tangled, as well giant spiders webs and hang in the most obscure and lethal of places. Lots of ways to get poisoned, as well... ;(

Swamps - Moving in this place is a nightmare. I pitty tha foo who wears heavy armor. However, you might want to wish you had heavy armor when you encounter some of the swamp\'s monsters. There\'s lots of mud in this place, as well. Sometimes there can be a feild of pure green grass; too bad there\'s water just under the surface. Lots of plant life disguise such things like lakes... and dungeon entrances. A machetty or a heavy sword is needed to cut through all the plants.

Dungeon - Your general baddies, except it\'s totally pitch black the deeper you go. Not much else to say.

Mines - Your general mining enviroment. Lots of things to drop and kill you instantly or atleast maim you long enough for a spider or orc to bite your head off. ;( There\'s often lots of water pools and mud.

Deep interior of the earth; here there be lava - Metal is weakened if it\'s melting point is lower then the highest temperature. Sometimes the metal will actually become maleable enough to re-shape it or melt in your hand/backpack if you go too deep. Potions evaporate if they arn\'t capped. Scrolls and other paper items become severly brittle. Organic armor like leather simply cumbles. Generally not a pleasant place to be. However, there are equipments that are purchasable or enchantments that can be placed on the items to stop them from suffering these ill effects.

The general stuff - That gives it all flava
Just common sense rules over this. Metal can melt or become weaker in hot enviroments. If it\'s cold enough potions will freeze. A wet scrolls\' ink can become blurry. Books can become un-bound if it\'s humid enough and glue was used. Metal melts ice. Fire burns paper. Lava > all.

====
Basic stuff like this and counters to their effects can greatly increase the fun (but sometimes frustration) of situations. Traveling in a well ballanced party would become needed for some adventures. The well prepared but weak could overcome the unprepared but mighty. Monsters would be adept at their enviroment, which means a far larger volume of enemies and enemy species.

Generally, Planeshift would become more of a RPG. Players would be asked for their skills more often, and usually be invited into a party when they otherwise might not be. Nothing feels more grand then slashing through a jungle, a living jungle, where nearly anything can happen to anybody in your party or a monster. More struggle, but more reward for success. And if you fail... Well, you can always respawn. And finally - more strategy.

If you can change the enviroment to your advantage, you will almost certainly win. Casting a ice bolt onto some water, freezing it, jumping on, having a monster follow you, and then you casting a blaze of fire to melt the ice and drown the beast. If archers are annoying you, just cast some fire on some nearby bush to burn them out. If it\'s too hot, cast a spell that will cool you down. If you dont want to walk through the snow, melt it. If somethings hitting you from the darkness, throw a lit torch at it!

More player-enviroment interaction is a good thing.

If you have heard of Naga\'s you\'ve probably heard of a religion that speaks of them, or have played D&D (or AD&D, perhaps even) If no other races will be accepted for a long-long time, i understand, but i just want to get this out of my head before the sticky note becomes a filing cabinet.

Backstory
 A ancient race of serpent people, Nagas have long lived on the overworld in peace through their use of innate stealth and their magics which conceal them. Nomads, forsaken by nearly all other races because of their appearance, they roam the surface without a home. Several Naga clans have ventured into the deep earth, and though some perished through unknown perils, and yet some have found Yliakum and this is where they currently setup, for the first time, perminate homes.

Appearance
 The upper half of their bodies appear as if they were as any other human male/female, however, they are completely bald, with absolutely no hair on their bodies. the lower half of them is that of a serpent, with one long, muscular \"foot\". If you cant see it, imagine a cobra rearing up and spreading it\'s neck, and you have a rough apearance of a Naga (minus the [upper body human appearance and proportions])

Their entire body is covered in scales, with the most prevalent colors being dark green, brown, and black though dark blue, dark purple, and deep red can also occur. Some Nagas have mottled, patterned, or striped scales as well. Their eyes have round pupils, with irises of red, purple, green, and brown.

Abilities and feilds of interest
Stealth is the Naga\'s main defence against predators, bounty hunters, and prey. To this end, the majority of their magics enhance or multiply by exponents their ability to do so. However, the Naga can weild a sword and swing an axe just as well as it can skulk in the shadows. Due to their appearance, they arn\'t thought of as good politicians, though some would argue that all politicians act the same, no matter what. Due to their single foot, they cannot jump even the slightest of amounts, however, they can extend themselves upwards several feet by \"standing on their tippy-toes\" so to speak. They are also excellent climbers.

Nutrition
 Due to Nagas being outcasts, they can go longer without food than most races, however, this doesn\'t mean they won\'t eat when the oppertunity arises. Being a serpent, they are not affected by poison, thus can eat poisoned food without so much as a stomach ache or passing bad gas (thus, a unliked Naga king will remain in power for a long, long time; so long as the assasins use poison.)

Rules
Immune to poison, medium-resistant to disease, can go longer times then most without eating. Can spit poison as a ranged weapon, with range based on [skill in] said ability. Bonus in stealth and stealth-like magic areas. +1 mana point at creation. Swims quickly in water for moderate amounts of time, though full submersion is not a good idea unless you have developed the swimming skill further. Can\'t \"side step\" well; going backwards is awkward; forwards can go quite fast.
ST +0 EN +1 AG +2 IN +1 WI +1 CH -3

Notes
the rules can be changed, however, the immunity to poison MUST stay, simply because Nagas ARE SIMILAR TO SNAKES (and i mean that in a good way) and would certainly use some sort of poison-or-other to attack their enemy with and be immune to the poison they use. now, before you go on and say that Nagas are snakes, and are therefore cold blooded dont. Nagas arn\'t snakes (though i may refer to them as such) they are not snakes. they are Nagas. Warm blooded, live birth, etc etc...

as well, Nagas can wear all the usual armors, however, they are far more comfortable in their own Naga armor. A Naga barding is one peice of armor that only the Naga can wear, as it fits the oddly shaped lower snake foot and still allows for directional movement at a fair speed. A Naga plate would fit the upper body of the Naga perfectly, and could also be worn by some other races though not without minimal to moderate discomfort. Hands and arms nearly equivelent to humans, so no real problem in them wearing humanoid gauntlets or arm armor. They can wear almost every humanoid helmet, though it might cut down on vision (the HUD gets blocked by a helmet over-lay like thing, as if you were looking through a actual helmet irl) but Naga specific helmets once more avoid this complication, thus no vision blocking happens.

Naga specific weapons are also available, though they have a neglable advantage over their counterparts.


Ok, you can post now.

[edit - i should be shot for my typos]

Ever run out of coal in a MMORPG when there\'s a possibly highly-flamable log next to you, but you cant burn it unless you have a tinderbox or something?

*cough* well, now you can pick up that log, and toss it in the furnace to smelt that metal with this idea.

Basically the standard of a half-pound of coal is used. this half pound of coal would be the Average Coal Amount or ACA for short. Basically ACA is looking at how much the fuel in question is similar to coal. Now, one half pound of coal is one ACA. A log of could be say, one half a ACA, even though that log is 3 pounds heavy.

ACA is the measurement of how much one half pound of coal can do. SO... the log that weighs more than .5 pounds and does less than one ACA of coal would be \"Poor ACA Quality\". something that weighs less than .5 pounds - 1 gram and does more than one ACA of Coal would be \"Good ACA Quality\"
Something that weighs milligrams and does more than one ACA of Coal would be \"Excelent ACA Quality\"

Now, the log that you throw into the furnace would have Poor ACA quality, because it is not coal (obviously) however tools like a air pump, and specially designed furnaces can increase the ACA of the material being burned. So, if you put the log into a properly designed furnance that log may have a equal amount or maybe even a greater ACA quality than it would normally have.

Putting high-quality fuel into a high-quality furnace will certainly mean you can smelt more with less fuel. A way to look at fuels efficency would be to look at:
How heavy is it?
What\'s it\'s ACA?

So a player can do some quick calculations and say that birch is heavier (bad), but has more ACA (good) and Mahogany (spelling?) is lighter(good), but has less ACA (bad) and then the player can think \"Should i be using coal for this? Can i get some coal quickly, here?\" and so on.

Also, some furnaces would require various fuel types... some furnaces will only burn wood, because anything with a ACA higher than

• may melt the furnace\'s walls. Metals require a minimum ACA to melt; you need to use a fuel that has the same [or higher] ACA as the metal. A metal with a ACA of .2 could be melted with coal easilly, though you would waste your coal [if you put in low amounts of ore]... so you should put the metal into [this] furnace with [that] fuel, and smelt away knowing you arn\'t wasting your resources.

Furnaces, previously mentioned, can raise the ACA of fuel but it can also lower the ACA of improper fuel. The furnace may be able to take wood, but just because you can put wood in doesn\'t mean you should. Placing the improper fuel into the wrong furnace may cause the fuel to be spent and not melt the metal; even if you were over the ACA requirement of the metal. Or even worse... make the metal impure and weaken the final product possibly resulting in DEATH due to neglegance!

[revision]Also, you could purchase your own furnace for your own personal needs, but it would be combersome, take time to setup, and would be highly restricted in it\'s fuel requirements and possible metals to smelt.[/revision]

this way smelting can be fun instead of tedius, because now you can break up that chair, and knowing it\'s wood type can now know it\'s ACA and the ACA requirement of the metal, and put it all into the best furnace for the job with the best results you can get and save your precious coal. :]

PS: sorry for the length, but it was necessary.

Seeing as how almost every other mining system is fairly borring (click click click one billion times sitting in the same spot trying to get the same ore 20 other ppl are trying to get) and rather usual (the rock on/in the land somewhere, again, clicky clicky) and since PS is just the opposite, i think it needs a mining system that\'s just as cool as the game is!

im not sure what if anything is planned for the mining system right now, so please excuse me if there\'s something already done for it.

Basically, 80% of mining would be done in the ground, 20% on the surface; not like Run/Escape, where there are only 2/3 major underground mining areas. Why so much under ground? its the place where the majority of the minerals and metals are excavated. this leaves the other amount left over for open pit mines and rocky out-croppings and things of that nature. Now, lots of mines would not be part of the normal world, which means that you have to load in another area. this effectivly means that mines can be as small/large as could be made without interfering with other areas underground.

The metals. Ahhh the metals, the hard part of mining. What to put in? You have all your basic Copper, Tin, Iron, Coal, Gold, Silver, Mithril, Adamant, etc and any other \"special\" ores to put in ... stuff.  Copper + Tin = Bronze, Iron + Carbon (Coal) = Steel, fyi. Maybe some of the less touched-upon metals like Aluminum, Nickle, and Platinum.

One thing that\'s hardly touched in MMORPG\'s are Minerals. Minerals can give great strength to a metal, even if that metal is already an alloy. (read: Tungsten tipped steel bullets) Some minerals can be Zinc to prevent corrosion on iron, and make stainless steel and brass when mixed while molten with copper. Sulfer (or Sulpher, however YOU want to spell it...) to be used in fire making in cookingbecause it has a low ignition point, and thus ignites at lower temperatures. Phosphorus can be used to provide chemically generated light (glow-in-the-dark stuff has some phosphorus in it) and of course many others that could be used in quests or in everyday use. (Ran out of torches? Use light-emitting phosphorus when combined with [other mineral/metal]!)

All that is useless without having a fun way to mine the stuff out, though, so here\'s where my main idea is!

Basically, when you go into a mine you\'d normally see a bunch of rocks on the ground. Not so in my idea. The mineral patches would be everywhere; floor, walls, AND ceiling. How do you get to the ceiling? You get a builder to build you some scaffolding. The more you mine the more the rock face becomes deformed and small, until only a small nodual is left. Eventually the nodual would be re-grown into the full amount of the seam (pushing the players out of the way, just incase someone went AFK too close to the nodual as it was regenerating) but be un-usable until it was fully regenerated.

Leaving the mines alone for too long will result in the noduals being \"over grown\". the longer they are over grown the higher the chance that the seam could drop off \"free\" peices of ore (something like wall decay irl (in real life), where bits of wall fall off the longer it stays up) and of course being over grown they would be larger than normal; again this is where the builder can come in, he can build wooden or stone walls around a nodual to limit how large they can become. making a node small would mean less ore yeild but you get it faster (as it takes less time for it to regenerate to its size) and making a node almost to its over-grown size would mean it would give a large yeild but regenerate slowly. building walls could also let paths remain open incase there are too many over-grown nodes nearby. the walls would eventually deteriorate and fall apart  with some of the original material being recoverable after some hours with higher builder skill making them stay longer. walls can also be used to separate the iron ores from the copper ores. ) they also give a place to put a torch (if dynamic lighting will be put in)

Some times nodes will completly \"run dry\" and die off, but another node of the same type is randomly placed in the mine where there are few other nodes nearby. this will lead players to \"Where\'s that mithril node...\" and thats where a geologist\'s hand book comes into use. you walk upto a wall, take some ore, and look into the hand book looking for the ore. now, you actually have to look in the hand book, on-screen and say \"Ok, this has to be mithril ore. its light in weight and its greyish blue in color.\" with alittle blurb at the bottom about how skilled you have to be to use it and stuff.

Skilled miners wont need the geologist\'s handbook; they\'d prolly know it all by visual referance to memory. just incase you cant take out a sample (imagine trying to pull out a adamant ore at the lowest skill level! ) there\'d be little peices of ore sticking out of the dirt, just littleral screaming \"Minerals and metal here! Im over here!\" and \"MINE ME YOU DUMB ***!\" and you can do your visual confermation that way. \"Yeah, thats [metal/mineral]. That stuff aint comming out o there at my skill level.\"

Of course you can be totally oblivious and mine it anyways, but you wont know what metal it is until someone smelts it, or you\'re stuck there for 15 minutes trying to get a metal out of the rock.


OK, enough of that, four things i forgot to mention:
1- sometimes nodes of the same type will be able to clump very close together. This is good, because it means that: A) The ore will regenerate x times faster with x amount of nodes there B) you\'re gonna get alot of ore and C) That cluster will stay there for quite awhile.
2- With the rough and sometimes mucky ground, travel can be hard with a full load of gold (heaaavy!) which is why a builder should be on-site to place wooden or stone floors in the mine. these stay up longer than walls, since they cant be lamed. about 36 hrs can be derived from even the lowest skilled placement of wooden floors.
3- Nodes that originate on the floor will grow upwards, nodes that originate on the ceiling will grow downwards, and nodes on the walls of impenetrable rock will grow away from the wall. Ceiling nodes will be mined out upwards, leaving a cavity in the roof. Floor nodes will be dug out downwards, leaving a pit in the floor. Wall nodes will be reduced to a thin seam on the impenatrable rock.
4- Sometimes \"dummy\" nodes will spring up. these would be \"one time\" random nodes, where they come with one type of ore (Copper, for example) and then when they are mined out (usually a low amount) they will not regenerate but move to another location in the mine with a different ore type (this time maybe Zinc) ready to be mined out again (this ensures that \"Oh, there\'s only [these ores] there, i think i\'ll move on now...\" doesn\'t happen like it does in... run/escape. )(Why \"dummy\" nodes? You\'d be a dummy waiting for them to regenerate. )

Idea additions:
Guild mines
Guild mines operate the same as the usual public mines (the ones above) except that they are usually much smaller, and privatly owned by guilds.

The way you can see a possibility of a [future guild] mine is a shimmering rock, for a shimmering rock holds valuable minerals and metals; and wealth! Underneath the shimering rock is a room of a uniform radius (im not sure how big something should be, lets just say 1 to 3 normal building floor sizes) and inside that room are dummy nodes and dirt nodes. The room is randomly generated every time you enter the mine; so one week it can hold copper, then next adamant (again to stop the \"oh this thing is here, i wont go there, its useless to me\" etc etc and the possibility of online \"guides\"

You can go upto the shimmering rock, and examine it. you then recive information on how it looks like. this rock is basically a bill board to tell you \"Hey, i have copper and tin! good for making bronze!\" or \"I have coal! and lots of it!\" IF you know what you\'re looking for (Geologist\'s hand book  )

When you (the miner) put down the mine entrace, the entrance will stay up for 5 days or until the dummy nodes are mined out, then collapses (dont worry, it pushes the players out to avoid harm) to ensure someone else gets their turn. 3 days or more are needed for the mine to recouperate. when its built a dirt node will be centered on the mine entrance, meaning that you have to crawl down there, and mine out the dirt node from the inside. dont worry, the dirt node doesn\'t expand; thus the entrance will stay \"open\" for the 5 days.

Once you finish mining out the dirt and get to a metal/mineral node there you can look at what type it is (if you didn\'t check the sparkly rock, again, you can do this entire thing in ignorance and get some ore) and mine it out as stated above like a normal dummy node. there are about 1-3 dummy nodes in the entire mine; all other space is either open or filled with a dirt node. when you\'re finished for the time being you can exit the mine and close the door to it and come back later. once the mine is exhausted, you get pushed out of the mine and the mine door collapses. you cannot use the mine again for atleast 3 days. the longer you leave it, the more ore accumalates but only to a certain amount.

the next time you go in, you may get phosphorus, iron, and copper instead of sulfer and coal.

you can also put in things like Evanchild said, like a bucket attached to rope slung from a pully to bring up ore so a miner can just go from the node to the bucket instead of having to climb the ladder to give the ore to someone. at the top you can have crates of ore ready to be hauled by people (or summons or what-have-you) to be taken to the smelter or something. also, at the top of the mine, everything there cannot be taken by anyone without the miner or the builders permission; same goes for entering into the mine. you have to OK it with the miner and/or builder first; which often means giving them a small amount of $ to get in.

Additions:
- \"Dirt nodes\", non-regenerative nodes that give nothing to you, but must be mined out to uncover the other, much more valuable metal and mineral nodes.
- Added in the \"Guild mines\" to this post.
- The miner can put down a mine entrance, its just that a builder is needed so that the mine can have enhancements. IE: wood/stone for walls and floors
- There will be tracks and trucks in the large public mines. guild mines could have them put in but they are too small, have too little amount of ore, and do not stay open long enough to facilitate the use of these ore hauling trucks; though they can still be built.
- Remember guild mines are meant to change hands.
End of Additions

----
Hope you enjoyed reading that looooong thread! (If you didn\'t your missing out on some great ideas)

[edit] i should murder myself for having so many typ

• s[/edit]
  [edit]Added additions section.[/edit]