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Messages - Geckolous

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1
Complaint Department / Re: Almost no weapons anymore at Trasoks and others: Probably the worst idea eve
« on: May 23, 2008, 12:28:19 am »


I've made a suggestion that could be helpful here,
that would solve many of the points raised in this thread...
:)


2
General Discussion / Re: Art Dept next steps?
« on: May 22, 2008, 02:48:26 am »

At a very basic level, it may be possible to tint the color of items (add a tint to the texture).
It'd be a start, and may only be a few lines of code.
(Don't know Crystal Space myself yet, so I'm assuming that'd be a quick job?)

3
General Discussion / Re: Conflict?
« on: May 21, 2008, 01:00:38 pm »

Making players collidable would make it very interesting!

It's likely to be hard to do with lag and other nasties, and there doesn't seem to be a physics engine as such...


We could have essentially the same idea if the area defined by the conflict formed a one way barrier - while the fight is on, you can enter the /conflict area, but you can't leave unless you die or the fight ends :D
(Somewhat evil, it would mean no running away from the conflict... and make it even more of a risk trying to break up a fight by sheer numbers!)


4
General Discussion / Re: Art Dept next steps?
« on: May 21, 2008, 12:54:44 pm »
The ability to enchant armors and weapons could be used to visually define characters further...

If the type of enchantment resulted in a color modifation / particle effect etc on the item in question,
and the strength of the enchantment made for the intensity,
and if multiple enchantments were allowed....

it would give us further gameplay options,
lets characters get more diversity in their appeal (eg 'evil' characters could have a dark enchantment on their armor that acts like a shadow around them)
and can be done without new mesh's.

It may even be possible to do this with a few engine tweaks, and the the 'artwork' being defining the effects of different enchantments on existing models and textures.

5
General Discussion / Re: Conflict?
« on: May 21, 2008, 05:46:53 am »
:)

Nice to get such good feedback!


It would be great to see particular area's often be /conflict(ed) lol
I can just picture the taven casting a red glow out the doorway, an easy warning for new players that "there be danger".

Watching (and getting hints via messages) as the fights are broken up would also be fun.


6
General Discussion / Re: Robbery
« on: May 21, 2008, 01:19:59 am »
Would this idea be helpful?

7
General Discussion / Re: How NPC's can fix the economy....
« on: May 21, 2008, 12:24:53 am »
So long as trading with NPC's has the NPC take a commission, it'll always be a better deal to trade direct with another player.

For example, say you've made a fantastic crafted item worth 100,000 Tria....
Being an upmarket item, NPC's insist on charging 25% commission to sell it for you.

So if they sell it, you get 75,000 Tria.
But if you sell it directly, you'd get 100,000 Tria.
(Either way, they person buying it has paid the same)

8
General Discussion / Re: How NPC's can fix the economy....
« on: May 20, 2008, 10:34:40 am »
I would assume there would still be a lot of interest in trading directly, because of the commission involved...

If I'm selling an expensive item, I expect a NPC would charge me a respectable commission (10-30%). I'd rather trade directly if I could, because I'd get all the money, not just most of it.

The advantage of having the NPC system above is that if I can't arrange to sell directly (eg no one's interested who's online), then I can sell to a NPC for a respectable (if not ideal) price.
It also means that if I want to buy items for crafting, I don't have to find a player who'll collect them for me. Of course, if I happen to find someone, so much the better (it won't cost as much, again with the commission).

So player trading remains the best market. NPC's will simply become a backbone, something that we can build from a lot easier then arranging an entire supply chain :)

9
General Discussion / Re: Conflict?
« on: May 20, 2008, 05:59:53 am »

Gameplay mechanic's Idea:
[/b]


Being able to force conflict can give RP a 'real' edge, and allows 'evil' players some support.
PVP zones and similar idea's are a pain - as pointed out early in this post, they often end up unbalancing the dynamics.

What if players could collectively choose to enable or disable conflict in particular areas?


For example, an attack on the plat mine....

A guild wants to force out the plat miners and corner the market...
They turn up and start using a /conflict command
Before fighting can start, there has to be a 2/3 majority that want to fight (have used /conflict)

As tension rises, players start getting messages like:
"Everyone seems a little tense today"
"The air is charged"
"You've started catching some evil glances"
etc

When it gets to 'breaking point' (just like a real mob!), a 1 min warning is given.
"You have 1min to leave the area before fighting will break out"

Define the zone of conflict being a distance from each player (eg 50m), and
wherever that zone has a 2/3 majority, it is highlighted (eg a red effect on the ground)
and players can attack each other as if in a guild war.

Conflict can be stoped by more people choosing /peace, or
by having extra people (eg guards, others players) entering the fight (while choosing /peace)
until the fighting forces looses it's 2/3 majority and tension starts to ebb.



This way fighting is easy to get into...
Fighting supports roleplaying goals....
Anyone who doesn't want to fight gets to run away...
And area's can be 'tamed' by more /peace(ful) players and made safe again.



Last thing would be to add guards behaviour so they will rush into a fight to break it up (/peace)
and stand a very good chance of surviving while they fight (make then extremely strong)
This makes it possible to start a fight near town, but really unwise to continue it!






10
Complaint Department / Re: "Time to die!" /die being abused
« on: May 20, 2008, 05:31:15 am »
I'm suggesting a permanent reduction :)

Let everyone keep their stats as is, get up and go straight out of the death realm... but put a penalty on all their material goods (damage from the dark crystal if you will).

It'll make the death realm far less appealing. For those who have to go there on purpose (to train), they'll soon be able to bank their items before hand and suffer no ill effects.

It'll lesson the impact on new characters a lot, who generally use store brought equipment which is easy to replace.


Eventually weapons and armors are likely to decay a lot faster (for economic reasons) - this may allow that decay to be less, and reward careful players with less costs of replacing their equipment!

11
Complaint Department / Re: "Time to die!" /die being abused
« on: May 20, 2008, 03:58:45 am »
Would having the curse half the max quality of all items (that have a quality, eg swords, armors etc) be an acceptable solution?

That way, there's still a penalty - half damage from weapons (with half the quality), half protection from armor, and (later) when mining is affected by the quality of the tools, same effect there.

It would stop the 'make a cup of tea for 30 min' effect, and also create a further need for items (helping the economy)

12
General Discussion / Re: How NPC's can fix the economy....
« on: May 20, 2008, 03:17:03 am »
Yes, it would only work on products that have a use :)

One solution would be that the NPC's can sell to 'external' buyers (The game itself). Limit these make believe buyers so that the frequency of their purchases is linked to the price - example: Iron Ore on offer for 5 Tria gets sold 'externally' within a minute (if a player doesn't buy it first)... the same ore if offered for 1000 Tria would have to sit there for a week on it's own (no other ore supplied) before an external buyer would have it.

The lower limit of an items cost is already set above (if commission is less then what Harnquist etc could get normally, they won't take it).

There wouldn't be an upper limit... but you need either a player to buy it, or a lot of time!

There may be situations where hardly anyone is making an item (eg Gold Shields) and they could then be sold for a lot to "external buyers"... but as soon as a cheaper one is put up for sale, it sells first, and effectively 'resets' the timer / chance for the more expensive one to sell.



So for items with further resale use (ore's without a point), we can have the game buy them. It'd start by buying the cheapest on offer, and buy less often if the goods are more expensive.

This will also deal with any goods stocking up (eg swords etc until they break down faster), as over time the game will buy them. Balance it out by having the game purchase items faster if there's a surplus.


example rules:
  • As soon a player purchases an item, reset the timer for that item.
  • If an item's listed at the minimum price, it gets sold externally a set time (eg Iron Ore = 1min, Gold Shields = 30 min)
  • If an item is listed at double the minimum price, it takes double the minimum time for the game to buy it, etc.
  • If there's four times the amount items on hand then would be ideal (eg 400 short swords), the game starts buying twice as fast



So all items get purchased eventually.

Items that are priced excessively (eg a Coal Lump for a million tria) will effectively never sell... because they'd need no one else to supply the same item for an excessively long time.

13
General Discussion / Re: How NPC's can fix the economy....
« on: May 20, 2008, 01:29:42 am »
Thanks Hrothbert!

I agree, it doesn't make sense that goods vanish on sale, and their value isn't linked to their quality.

Far more useful to have goods exist from start -> finish..... someone mines ores, another buys it, creates stock and sells it back... someone else makes a weapon out of it, etc etc. It'll make for far more realistic interactions and prices!


Oh yea - missed point from above. Inflation can be controlled by NPC's charging a higher commission % on particular items. This will force people to pay more for them, while the seller gets the same / less then otherwise.

14
General Discussion / How NPC's can fix the economy....
« on: May 19, 2008, 11:59:05 pm »
Greetings all!


I've been following the discussion on the Economy Poll, as I've been wondering for a while how we could implement the economy we want without the pitfalls of other MMO's.


Eventually many players want to make goods and sell them - and the more who do, the better the economy and the game gets. There's been suggestions that people may be able to set up stalls in the future to help with this. Please don't! It'd be unfortunate for Hydlaa to be overcome with a million stalls all selling much the same thing!






We already have the framework for buying and selling goods in place. Our NPCs, although mostly useless business wise at the moment, can be the backbone of our economy with a few small changes.....
  • Continue to limit what NPC's buy to their profession / trade.
  • Internally, make NPC's pay for goods from their 'default' provider (item's the game simply gives them)
  • The difference between the NPC's cost of supply and their lowest sale price is their minimum profit.



Nothing too shocking so far... Make NPC's work a bit more like a business first, then we can link players into the same system....
  • Don't allow players to sell to NPC's and get cash straight away. (Counterproductive? Read on!)
  • Get NPC's to sell players goods for a commission (eg 10%).
  • Let the player set the price the NPC is to sell for, and
  • Only have the NPC accept if their commission will be more then their minimum profit above.



Set a couple of rules for the NPC to follow....
  • They can only buy new goods from their 'default' supplier (the game) if they have less then x units in stock. (Eg less then 4 ores etc)
  • They only sell their own goods for the double the average price (as measured for the past week) or similar.
  • They will always sell the item with the lowest price first. (So out of 10 Iron Ores, the lowest price is sold first).



An example:
  • You could go to Trasok and buy ore.
  • Since Iron Ore has been selling for 100 Tria, and no one's sold Trasok any recently, he's charging 200 Tria.
  • You buy it anyway, and get enough to make steel stock.
  • You go to sell the stock back to Trasok for someone else to buy, and set a price of 2000 Tria.
  • You get nothing.
  • You go kill something...
  • Someone buys your steel stock, and Trasok sends you a message (/tell player Trasok here, your steel stock has just sold. I've got 1800 Tria for you)
  • You go back to Trasok and collect your money, less his commission. (eg 10%)






Using NPC's like this will make sure goods can be brought to craft into other things, so no one will need to be a master miner-smelter-axe maker anymore.

The prices will float according to supply and demand - no adjustments needed once it's set up.

Everyone will know where to go to buy and sell a particular product. If I want to buy ore, I should go to a smith, not to a random shop in the back of Oja or a stall halfway to the Bronze Doors. :)

Income is delayed. This is good, as it gives time to RP and experience variety. Or for those who want to, it means running a business making stocks will require the captial to keep purchasing until the sales happen.

As PS gets 1000's more players, we won't need to set up "shop areas", get flooded with 100's of auction messages or the like. At the same time, goods can and will be sold for the best price, from central and well known locations.






What do you think?

Could this work now?

Will this still work in 2 years?

How would it change our game?



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